Identifying Employment-creating Sectors in South Africa: The Role of Services Industries
by ALTMAN, M., 2006Development Southern Africa, 23:5, 627-647
Altman explores scenarios for employment creation, with an emphasis on services. It considers whether the government’s current policies for the formal services sector will achieve its 2014 target of halving unemployment. New employment has mainly been found in the formal and non-formal services, and future employment will probably come from such sectors as business services,…
read more >>Analysing Intersectoral Outsourcing in South Africa
by TREGENNA, F. , 2007Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Tregenna examines whether services employment growth in South Africa can be explained by outsourcing or alternatively expanded activity. To do this, Tregenna develops a new methodology for quantifying the extent that outsourcing contributes to shifts in employment between sectors. Using occupational and sectoral data from the October Household Surveys (1997–1999) and Labour Force Surveys (2000–2005),…
read more >>Which Sectors Can Be Engines of Growth and Employment in South Africa? An Analysis of Manufacturing and Services
by TREGENNA, F. , 2007Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Tregenna investigates whether manufacturing still has the potential to be the engine of growth in South Africa, or whether services can play this role in future. International comparisons reveal that while the share of manufacturing value added in South Africa is high for the country’s level of income, the share of manufacturing employment is less…
read more >>South African Mining Sector Employment: Forecast To 2025
by BAARTJES, N., 2011Research report, Centre for Poverty Employment and Growth, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria
Baartjes focuses on trends in mining employment in South Africa, per sector, and includes a long-term forecast. He provides a profile of employment in the sector from 1995 to 2010, and discusses input shocks (e.g. electricity supply) and the commodity boom. He then reviews the primary mining sectors – gold, platinum group metals, coal, diamonds, iron…
read more >>Manufacturing Exports and Employment Growth
by DAVIES, R. , 2006Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Davies considers the role of manufacturing exports in creating employment. It looks at the potential and limitations of the sector itself, and also its interaction with other sectors. He assesses where export growth might occur, and the contribution of different sectors to such growth, given their labour intensity, backward and forward linkages, and export dependence….
read more >>What Theory and International Experience Suggest about the Role of Manufacturing in Good Employment Growth for South Africa
by BERRY, A. , 2006Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Although econometric evidence is not very strong, there seems no reason to doubt that parts of the manufacturing sector have been drivers of growth in many countries. Much microeconomic evidence attests to technological progress within manufacturing and a considerable spillover to other sectors. This spillover may be direct (manufacturing produces machinery and equipment that raise…
read more >>Formal-Informal Economy Linkages and Unemployment in South Africa
by DAVIES, R. & THURLOW, J., 2009Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
South Africa’s high involuntary unemployment and small informal sector are attributed to an underperforming formal sector and barriers to entry into the informal sector. Davies and Thurlow examine the economy-wide linkages between the formal and informal economies, while accounting for different types of informal activities. A multi-region, empirically calibrated computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is…
read more >>Formal/Informal Linkages in South Africa: Some Considerations
by VALODIA, I., 2006Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
To know how the economy might meet the target of halving unemployment by 2014, the Employment Scenarios project investigated how the informal sector might grow. How much of the employment target is likely to be reached through growth in the informal economy? Is the informal sector likely to continue growing in the period leading up…
read more >>Agricultural Employment Scenarios
by ALIBER, M., BAIPHETI, M. & JACOBS, P., 2009Another Countryside? Policy Options for Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa, Chapter 6, Ed. Ruth Hall, PLAAS, School of Government, University of Western Cape, April 2009
Agriculture is often held up as a sector in which much employment can be created. However, employment on commercial farms in South Africa has been in long-term decline. SA’s high unemployment rates draw us to question if this trend can be halted, or better, reversed. Another question is whether there are alternative ways in which…
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